Wake boards are a form of recreational equipment upon which a person rides that is towed behind a boat or jet ski. A wake board resembles a surf board, and has bindings which attach the feet of a rider onto the top surface of the wake board.
One problem with prior art wake board and water ski bindings is that the bindings must hold the rider's foot in continuous contact with the top surface of the wake board, yet must be flexible enough to allow release of the rider upon a fall. Prior art bindings addressed these problems in a number of ways, but the majority of the bindings fell into two separate groups. A first group of the bindings were designed primarily of a stretchable material. The stretchable material was adjustable to fit many different foot sizes, and stretched to release a foot upon a fall. However, the designs were often uncomfortable, because the stretchable material had to be tensioned around the entire foot to hold the rider in place. An example of a prior art wake board binding having this construction can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,291 to McClaskey. The wake board binding in McClaskey includes two strips that are attached at the top of the wake board on opposite sides of a heel of a rider. The strips extend upward around the instep of the rider and are attached by hook and loop material. Attachment of the two strips binds the rider's foot to the upper surface of the wake board and maintains the rider's foot against the upper surface.
A second type of water ski or wake board bindings is formed of a semi-rigid material. For example, the two patents to Uren et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,181,332 and 5,334,065) disclose a water ski boot and binding including rigid side panels or cowls, rigid heel supports, and straps mounted over the instep of a foot portion of a rider. A rigid cuff extends around the ankle of the rider that is made as a monolithic tube of stiff semi-rigid or substantially rigid plastic material. A problem with this design is that it does not permit release of the rider's foot, but instead the boot releases from the ski upon a fall.
Another prior art wake board binding 10 is shown in FIG. 1. This binding includes a semi-rigid two piece (front 12 and rear 14) holster 16 for receiving the foot of a rider, surrounded by a flexible loop of material 18 that extends from one side of the foot, over the top of the foot, around the ankle, and back over the other side of the foot where it is attached. The flexible loop 18 is also attached around and below the heel. The binding 10 provides comfort for a rider in that the foot is received between the two semi-rigid panels 12, 14 of the holster 16, in contrast to the tensioned straps in other prior art bindings such as disclosed in McClaskey. However, the semi-rigid panels 12, 14 are not adjustable, and thus the bindings must be changed for a rider having a different sized foot.
There is a need for a wake board and water ski binding that provides the comfort of a semi-rigid boot, yet is adjustable to fit a number of different sized feet. Preferably, the binding would permit release of the rider upon a fall, to prevent injuries to the rider or damage to the bindings.